The short answer
To register for EFRIS, log in to the URA web portal at ura.go.ug through the e-invoicing link with your TIN and portal password, enter the one-time password (OTP) URA sends to your registered email or phone, select First time registration, choose e-invoicing, an Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) or both, add any branches and submit the application for URA approval. Once URA approves you, set up your products or services in EFRIS and choose how you will issue receipts: the web portal, the desktop app, the URA mobile app, an EFD or your own POS or ERP connected system to system.
URA's registration page mentions no registration fee, and URA offers its portal and desktop app to businesses that cannot afford a paid system. Every VAT-registered business has had to issue EFRIS e-invoices since 1 January 2021. Since 1 July 2025, businesses in 12 URA sectors must issue e-receipts or e-invoices whether or not they are VAT registered, under URA's sector notice, unless their annual turnover is below UGX 10 million. From 1 July 2026, failing to issue one costs double the tax due or UGX 200,000, whichever is higher. Stuck on the login already? Jump to the login fixes.
What to prepare before EFRIS registration
The application itself is four steps on the URA portal (steps 1 to 4 below). What usually holds a business up is the preparation: a portal password nobody remembers, an OTP going to a former accountant's phone, or no written product list. Gather the items below first. If you are still working out what EFRIS is, start with our EFRIS guide for Uganda.
| Item | Where to get it | Why URA needs it |
|---|---|---|
| TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) | From URA, through the web portal at ura.go.ug. If your business already files any URA return, it has one. | EFRIS identifies your business by its TIN, and you log in with it. |
| URA web portal password | Set when your TIN account was created. If it no longer works, reset it on the portal or ask URA's help desk. | EFRIS log-in uses the same TIN and password as the portal. |
| Access to the email and phone on your TIN record | Your TIN registration details. If they belong to an old SIM or a former staff member, update them with URA before you start. | URA sends the one-time password there. A portal OTP stays valid for 24 hours. |
| A list of every place you sell from | Your own records: head office, shops, branches and depots, with their physical locations. | The application asks you to add each additional place of business. |
| Your choice of issuing method | Your own decision, based on your number of sales and whether you already use a POS, ERP or accounting system (options compared below). | The application asks you to choose e-invoicing, an EFD or both. |
| Product and service list | Your price list, a POS export or a spreadsheet: name, unit of measure, selling price and tax rate for each item. | After approval, each product or service must be registered or configured in EFRIS before it can go on a receipt. |
| Goods and services codes | Chosen inside EFRIS for each item after approval. Check the product set-up steps in URA's EFRIS user guides. | They are part of setting up each item, so URA knows what each line on your receipts is. |
| Opening stock count (goods only) | A physical count after closing on the day before you start issuing. | Guides describe EFRIS keeping a stock record for goods that each receipt reduces. Confirm the steps in URA's EFRIS handbook. |
| A device, power and internet | Any computer or phone with a browser for the portal. A used business laptop was listed at UGX 450,000 to 700,000 in Kampala in September 2026 (more in our POS machine price guide). Or your POS or ERP. | Issuing needs power, your TIN and password, and an internet connection. Some methods also work offline. |
One practical rule: the TIN log-in belongs to the business. Keep it with the owner or finance lead, not with a cashier or an outside bookkeeper who may leave, because every future EFRIS session starts from it.
The EFRIS registration process, step by step
These steps follow URA's registration page (dated 8 August 2026) and its EFRIS brochure. Steps 1 to 4 are the application. Steps 5 to 8 are the onboarding after URA approves you. Step 7 comes from integrator guidance rather than URA's page, so confirm it in URA's handbook.
- Confirm your TIN and portal login. You need a TIN and a URA web portal account with a password; EFRIS log-in uses the same TIN and password. Log in to the portal once before you begin, so a forgotten password does not stop you halfway.
- Open the e-invoicing link. Go to www.ura.go.ug, open the e-invoicing link and log in to your TIN account.
- Enter the OTP. URA sends a one-time password to the email or phone registered on your TIN. Enter it to continue.
- Apply through First time registration. Select First time registration, choose e-invoicing, an EFD or both, add every additional place of business (branch) and submit the application for URA approval. Choose EFD, or both, only if you plan to buy a URA-certified fiscal device. If you are unsure which option fits your setup, ask URA on 0800 117 000 before you submit.
- After approval, set up your products or services. URA requires you to register or configure your products or services before you can issue e-invoices or e-receipts. In practice that means each item's goods and services code, unit, price and tax rate. An item that is not set up cannot go on a receipt. If products need entering in bulk, send your price list in one spreadsheet so each item is set up once.
- Choose how you will issue receipts day to day. The URA web portal, the desktop (client) application from the portal's e-invoicing downloads menu, the URA mobile application, an EFD, or system-to-system integration of your own POS or ERP. The options are compared in the next section.
- Enter opening stock (goods only). Enter your opening stock and record stock as it arrives, so sales can be issued against it. This is common integrator guidance; confirm the exact steps in URA's EFRIS handbook.
- Learn the system. URA publishes self-help video tutorials, user guides (in the User Guides section of its EFRIS site) and videos on its YouTube channel. If you are stuck, call URA on 0800 117 000 or WhatsApp 0772 140 000.
Your first receipt: check it end to end
Make your first EFRIS receipt a real, small sale you can follow from start to finish. On the printed or emailed receipt, look for three things: a Fiscal Document Number (FDN), a verification code and a QR code. A genuine EFRIS receipt carries all three; a receipt without them is not an EFRIS receipt. Only then train the rest of the team on the same method.
Get the tax rate right on every item
If you are VAT registered, each item's tax rate decides the VAT recorded on every receipt. At the standard 18 percent rate, a VAT-inclusive price of UGX 118,000 contains UGX 18,000 VAT on a net price of UGX 100,000 (VAT = price x 18/118). Set exempt and zero-rated lines correctly as well: URA's VAT guide gives financial services, education and passenger transport as examples of exempt supplies and exports as zero-rated, but the schedules change, so check your own items with URA. To split a price into net and VAT, use our VAT calculator for Uganda.
Portal, desktop app, EFD or POS: how you will issue receipts
You choose this in step 6. Here is who each method suits, using URA's own descriptions, and what it costs you.
The EFRIS portal (URA web portal)
Suits businesses without a billing system and with a small number of sales. It works on any computer or phone with a browser and internet. You log in with your TIN and password plus an OTP that stays valid for 24 hours. No URA charge.
The desktop application
Downloaded from the portal's e-invoicing downloads menu and installed on a laptop or desktop. URA describes it as an offline enabler, so you can keep issuing when the internet drops, and it does not need the daily OTP. No URA charge; you supply the computer. A used business laptop such as an HP EliteBook with a Core i5 was listed at UGX 450,000 to 700,000 in Kampala in September 2026.
The URA mobile application
URA's registration page lists a URA mobile application as a platform. We could not confirm its current app store listing or whether it works offline, so check with URA before you plan your counter around it.
An Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD)
A URA-certified device with protected fiscal memory. It suits fuel and gas stations and businesses with fewer transactions that sell in the field or on routes. You pay for the device, support and validation; we found no published price. Buy only a device URA has linked and authenticated: acquiring one that is not is an offence with a fine of up to 300 currency points (UGX 6 million), up to three years in prison, or both.
System to system: your own POS or ERP
Your POS, ERP or accounting system connected to EFRIS through URA's web service API. It suits supermarkets, wholesalers, manufacturers, hotels and any business with higher volumes, and it can work offline. You pay for the integration, device, installation, maintenance and repair. Before you replace a POS that already works, ask whether it can be connected instead. We scope each connection against URA's published specification and confirm it is feasible before quoting; see EFRIS integration in Uganda, or send us your system's name on WhatsApp +256 702 946 946. Meeting the fiscal rules remains your business's own obligation. For printer, scanner and terminal prices, see our POS machine price guide.
Which one fits
- Few sales, no billing system: the portal or the desktop app, at no URA charge.
- Internet that drops often: the desktop app, an EFD or a system-to-system POS, which URA says support offline issuing.
- Fuel station or sales on the road: an EFD.
- A busy till, stock to control or several branches: a POS or ERP connected system to system, so the receipt comes out of the sale itself.
If you use Growth Informer Business
Growth Informer Business is our own live cloud POS system, stock and business platform, from UGX 1,000,000 a year for one business. It issues URA EFRIS e-receipts and e-invoices today, and EFRIS is a setting: switch it on when URA requires it, or voluntarily, and leave it off until then, without changing systems. Registering with URA is still yours to do; after approval, going live is a setting rather than a new system. Its restaurant and hotel modules cover kitchen orders, tables, rooms and bookings, which matters because accommodation and food service is one of URA's 12 sectors (more on our restaurant POS system page). We can show it working before you commit: WhatsApp +256 702 946 946 and ask for a demo. We are a Kampala software company with 37 live website and app builds, and we give a fixed quote before any work starts.
EFRIS for businesses that are not VAT registered
The registration steps are the same. The difference is the document you issue: a VAT-registered business issues an e-invoice through EFRIS, and a business that is not VAT registered issues an e-receipt.
Since 1 July 2025, under URA's sector notice, businesses in these 12 sectors must issue EFRIS e-invoices or e-receipts whether or not they are VAT registered:
- Manufacturing
- Mining and quarrying
- Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
- Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
- Construction
- Transportation and storage, excluding passenger land transport (taxis, boda-bodas, shuttles, buses)
- Accommodation and food service activities
- Information technology and communication, excluding non-resident digital service providers that pay digital service tax
- Real estate activities (landlords with rental income below UGX 2,820,000 a year are not required)
- Professional, scientific and technical activities
- Arts, entertainment and recreation
- Wholesale and retail of fuel
Businesses in these sectors with annual turnover below UGX 10 million are not required to use EFRIS, though they may do so voluntarily. That exemption covers only the sector rule: a VAT-registered business must use EFRIS whatever its turnover.
Three quick examples
- A restaurant selling UGX 40 million a year, not VAT registered: accommodation and food service is on the list and it is above UGX 10 million, so it has had to issue EFRIS e-receipts since 1 July 2025.
- A landlord collecting UGX 2.4 million a year in rent: below the UGX 2.82 million rental figure, so not required.
- A hardware shop selling UGX 120 million a year, not VAT registered: general retail is not one of the 12 sectors (only fuel retail is), so it is not required under these rules. If it registers for VAT, it must.
Work through your own case in Do I need EFRIS?, and confirm the answer with URA if anything about your business is unusual.
What the new VAT threshold changes
The 2026 amendments raised the VAT registration threshold to UGX 300 million a year from UGX 150 million, from 1 July 2026. URA's own VAT pages still showed UGX 150 million when we checked on 19 September 2026, so confirm the figure with URA. A business below the new threshold may apply online to deregister from VAT, subject to URA reviewing its records. Deregistering does not end EFRIS for a business in one of the 12 sectors with turnover of UGX 10 million or more: it moves from e-invoices to e-receipts.
What changes day to day after you register
Registration is a one-off. These are the habits that change at the counter and in the office once you are live.
- Every sale gets an EFRIS receipt. Each one carries an FDN, a verification code and a QR code. A handwritten receipt book no longer covers a sale that must go through EFRIS.
- Business buyers give an ID. When a sale is for business purposes, the receipt should carry the buyer's Business Registration Number (BRN), National Identification Number (NIN) or TIN. Keep regular customers' details on file so the queue keeps moving.
- Your business customers need your receipt. A business cannot claim an income tax deduction for an expense without an EFRIS e-invoice or e-receipt when the supplier was required to use EFRIS (Income Tax Act, section 22(3)(m)). Expect buyers to ask for it.
- You need your suppliers' receipts too. Ask every supplier that must use EFRIS for an e-invoice or e-receipt. Illustration: a company that pays UGX 5 million to a construction firm and gets no e-receipt cannot deduct it; at a 30 percent company rate, which you should confirm with URA, that is about UGX 1.5 million more income tax.
- New products go into EFRIS first. An item that is not set up cannot go on a receipt, so add new lines before they reach the shelf or the menu.
- Deliveries get recorded. For goods, record stock received so you can keep selling against it (confirm the steps in URA's handbook).
- Portal users log in with an OTP. A portal OTP stays valid for 24 hours; the desktop application does not need one each day.
- URA holds a copy of every receipt. Your system sends each receipt's data to EFRIS, so a VAT-registered business's monthly VAT return, due by the 15th of the following month, should agree with it.
What a missed receipt costs
From 1 July 2026, a business that must use EFRIS and fails to use it, fails to issue an e-invoice or e-receipt, or tampers with a fiscal device pays a penal tax of double the tax due or UGX 200,000 (10 currency points), whichever is higher. Older figures still found online, such as UGX 6 million or UGX 8 million minimums, are out of date.
An illustration only, because how URA works out the tax due in a particular case is for URA to confirm: if the tax due were the UGX 18,000 VAT inside a UGX 118,000 sale, double would be UGX 36,000, so the UGX 200,000 floor applies. On a UGX 5,900,000 VAT-inclusive invoice the VAT is UGX 900,000, and double is UGX 1,800,000.
URA's own message is that EFRIS is not a new tax; it is a way of recording sales. The effort is in the setup, and then in the habit of issuing every receipt.
EFRIS login problems, other snags and training
Login and OTP problems
- TIN or password rejected: EFRIS uses the same TIN and password as your URA web portal account. Test the portal login on its own first; if that fails, reset the password on the portal or ask URA.
- The OTP never arrives: it goes to the email or phone registered on your TIN. If that is an old number or an email a former accountant controls, the code goes there. Check the spam folder, then ask URA to update your contact details on 0800 117 000.
- Asked for a new OTP every day: a portal OTP lasts 24 hours. If that slows your counter, the desktop application does not need a daily OTP.
- Cannot find where to register: registration starts from the e-invoicing link on ura.go.ug. Log in there, then choose First time registration.
Problems after you apply
- Application submitted but nothing works yet: you cannot issue until URA approves the application and your products or services are set up.
- An item will not go on the receipt: it has not been configured in EFRIS, or, for goods, there may be no stock recorded against it.
- Wrong tax rate on an item: correct the item before issuing more receipts. Corrections to issued receipts are normally made with a credit note; follow URA's user guide rather than issuing a second receipt for the same sale.
- Internet or power goes off: the portal needs a live connection. The desktop app, an EFD or a system-to-system POS support offline issuing, and a UPS on the till and router keeps the counter running through short cuts.
- A branch was left off the application: the application asks for every additional place of business, so ask URA how to add one that was missed before you issue from it.
EFRIS training
URA offers self-help video tutorials, user guides in the User Guides section of its EFRIS site and videos on its YouTube channel. Its registration page mentions no formal training requirement. Plan the first week around it anyway: every person who sells needs to issue a receipt, check it has an FDN and QR code, and know what to do when the internet drops. If you issue from a POS, staff learn EFRIS through that system at the till.
URA help lines: toll-free 0800 117 000, WhatsApp 0772 140 000, email services@ura.go.ug. For questions about your own system or a connection, WhatsApp us on +256 702 946 946; we reply within 6 hours and set up a meeting for the next day.
Frequently asked questions
How do I register for EFRIS?
Log in to the URA web portal at ura.go.ug through the e-invoicing link with your TIN and password, enter the one-time password sent to your registered email or phone, select First time registration, choose e-invoicing, an EFD or both, add your branches and submit. After URA approves you, set up your products or services in EFRIS and choose how you will issue receipts.
Is there a fee to register for EFRIS?
URA's registration page mentions no registration fee, and we found no URA fee for EFRIS itself. URA offers its web portal and desktop application to businesses that cannot afford an EFD or an ERP system. You pay for a fiscal device or a system-to-system integration if you choose one, plus the computer or phone you issue from.
Can a business that is not VAT registered use EFRIS?
Yes. It issues e-receipts instead of e-invoices. Since 1 July 2025, businesses in 12 URA sectors, including accommodation and food service, construction and manufacturing, must use EFRIS whether or not they are VAT registered, unless their annual turnover is below UGX 10 million. Businesses in those sectors below that figure may use it voluntarily. Confirm your own position with URA.
Why is my EFRIS login not working?
EFRIS uses the same TIN and password as your URA web portal account, so test the portal login first. The one-time password goes to the email or phone on your TIN record; if those are out of date, the code goes there. A portal OTP lasts 24 hours, and the desktop application does not need a daily OTP. URA help: 0800 117 000, WhatsApp 0772 140 000 or services@ura.go.ug.
Is there EFRIS training?
URA publishes self-help video tutorials, user guides in the User Guides section of its EFRIS site and videos on its YouTube channel. Its registration page mentions no formal training requirement. If you issue from a POS, your staff also learn EFRIS through that system at the till.
What happens after URA approves my EFRIS application?
Set up each product or service in EFRIS, choose how you will issue receipts, enter opening stock for goods if your setup tracks it, and make a first real sale to check the receipt carries a Fiscal Document Number, a verification code and a QR code. From then on, every sale needs an EFRIS receipt.